SZA - Back Together | Pad Synth Patch Remake

Remaking the pad synth from the 2016 song "Back Together" by SZA can be an exciting challenge for any synthesizer enthusiast. Here’s how you can create the "Back Together" pad patch and play this iconic sound on most hardware or software subtractive synthesizers (Serum, Vital, Pigments, Prophet, Korg, Moog, etc). We've included the preset download directly for your convenience, but we strongly recommend you use our programming tutorial to recreate it yourself.

Original Audio

The pad heard at 2:54 in SZA’s “Back Together” is a background lead-style pad built from detuned unison saw waves with a supporting sub oscillator, heavy reverb, and generous portamento so the notes glide between pitches. It plays a melody like a lead patch would, but serves as background texture like a pad does. So we’re calling it a “pad”. It appears in the bridge as a warm, sliding atmospheric lead behind the vocal. Its role is melodic texture rather than up-front punch.

Original Performing Instrument

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Our Remake of The Pad Synth sound

This audio clip is how close we've matched the original tone of the pad synth from the song "Back Together" by SZA, giving you a reference point as you design your own synthesizer preset. Play it as often as you need to familiarize yourself with the nuances of the sound.

Synth Patch Programming Recipe

Getting Started

• Start by initializing your synthesizer to a plain saw with no filter, modulation or effects. For soft synths use the "init"/"default" preset or the the button to reset allx parameters to their default factory values.
• No two synths are exactly alike, so treat the values below as approximate, and use your ear.
• Percentage values (e.g. 50%) represent the relative position of a knob or slider within its full range. The full range of each parameter may differ from synth to synth, so use your ear.

Note: the patch settings may slightly differ in the Syntorial challenge.

Explore More

• SZA – Back Together | Pad Synth Patch Remake (Syntorial)
• Reverb Machine — Recreating SZA’s Ctrl Synth Sounds (context on SZA pad synths)
• Synth Remake Tutorial: SZA – Back Together (Pad) — YouTube (short)
• SZA Back Together pad synth remake tutorial recipe — Reddit

Preset Downloads

Don't want to learn synth programming now? Use our synth preset as your starting point and tweak it from there. Register an account with Audible Genius and download the presets for free for the following synths:

• Primer, our free synthesizer VST

Comments

This recipe is the result of a Syntorial community preset remake request. Need support remaking this sound? Have comments?